Through mirrors and smoke: SQ Week 8, Au worlds
by ShadowDianne
Summary: My intake of the 8th SwanQueen Week. Ratings may vary
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm very excited to participate at this week's themes! AU worlds are really my favorite topic! I hope you all enjoy reading these small stories as much as I enjoyed writing for them. Viva La Swan Queen! ;)**

 **Celebrity AU: Golden lights**

Emma bit down her bottom lip as the soft "click" of the camera's shutter filled her ears. Her emerald eyes glinted under the sunrays of the first hours of morning and she tilted her head to her left, looking at the view that stood in front of her.

The sun played with the sea and sand of the beach that stood at the other side of the fence that headed towards the first meters of the private place. The blonde photographer had definetely seen views that others could have described as more breathtaking but as she clicking sound of the shutter continued she took a step backwards, admiring the view through the view finder, teeth now trapping her bottom lip while she tried to adjust the lens as perfect as possible under the quickly varying light.

"Everything is packed." A voice came at her back, making her jump slightly before she lowered her hands. She blinked her concentration away and turned, a smile appearing on her mouth as she took on a very different kind of view; A beautiful brunette looking at her with her hands up her waist and an amused glow on the back of a pair of beautiful brown chocolate eyes that had been described in far too many magazines as "full of secrets". "I knew you were going to be here." Finished Regina, stepping closer and taking her camera away after sharing a quick look with her, asking for a permission Emma had already granted multiple times, ever after the first night they had spent together. The brunette, however, asked every time she came closer to the camera and Emma -grateful- always replied. "Saying goodbye?"

Emma nodded and pointed at the sea, the sound and smell of it-something she hadn't taken into consideration mere minutes before, hitting her senses once again.

"I'm going to miss it." She finally spoke, her voice slightly rough after having been silent for so many minutes.

Neither of them said anything but the truth, the realization that now that her relationship had been discovered the amount of time they were going to be alone, truly alone, was going to dwindle dramatically, hovered over them like the cries from the seagulls that seemed to fill the little silence left by the waves.

Fiddling with the shutter Regina raised the camera to her eye level and looked at Emma towards the lens.

The blonde photographer had her face turned towards the sea, the sunrays hitting her nose and lips and the brunette actress realized that even if they hadn't really been outside for long periods of time the pale skin of the other woman seemed to have taken a slightly darker tone that made her smile. For all the time the blonde spent behind those same lenses she looked beautiful in front of them. A statement she hadn't needed a lot of time to make the very first time they had seen each other.

Regina could still picture it vividly; the day her PR had told her the need to do a new photoshoot in order to keep her fans interested.

"It's so early..." She had half muttered as the car with both Mal and herself had approached the place where the photoshoot was going to take place. She had been in need of a coffee and she had winced at the needy tone that had come from her mouth. Mother would have never approved such tone and for a second she had chastised herself before she had managed to get a grip on her old custom. Cora Mills had been, still was in some circles, considered one of the most elegant actress of her time. Poised and beautiful she had accompanied dozens of amazing directors during her career and during her first years as an actress Regina herself had had found herself following the whims and desires of the old star. During that cold day of September, however, Regina tried to not react as her mother would have wanted her to act but, rather, as she herself would have. The result, however, wasn't as perfect as it could have been and she had felt Mal's piercing stare before the woman had blinked what had seemed to have been her surprise away.

And truth be told it was very early in the morning, early enough for her tiredness being justified.

Mal had crossed her long legs before looking at her up and down in a look that Regina never knew if it was appraising or downright worrying.

"It has been almost a month of the premiere of your last film." She had explained. "We need new photos and the new photographer couldn't make it later today. Plus, you had already booked yesterday's afternoon with that other premiere of Mida's daughter."

Regina had felt that whatever strength she could have had starting to fade under Mal's tone and she nodded, defeated. She knew it wasn't her position to be complaining. In truth she enjoyed her job and almost all her aspects a lot, minus the pressure that came accompanied to the fact of being a woman in the industry, but sometimes, most of the time really, she would have preferred not to be judged by her mother's merits and only by her own.

So, defeated and tired, the first time she had entered into Emma Swan's reigns she hadn't felt very chirpy when the blonde had introduced herself to her with a wave of hand and what seemed to have been a blush covering her cheeks. The second action wasn't all that new to Regina but she had kept staring to the long gracious fingers of the blonde as they worked with the camera that soon enough would be directed at Regina, once make up finished with her of course.

Those fingers, as well as the blonde herself, were precise and mesmerizing in a way Regina had been unable to pinpoint how until she had been in front of the her, channeling into the kind of persona she pretended to be whenever she needed to be Regina Mills, the actress, and not Regina Mills, the woman. Later, she would learn that the first time Emma had seen her she had had the impression that Regina had been, to put in the blonde's words, a bitch but those days had still been a month away and in that moment Regina had done her part acting like the actress she was as the shutter of the camera had clicked away.

Neither the blonde and herself had met until a week after that, for another event and this time Regina, dressed with one of the less overelaborate dresses she owned -a slight fuck you to her mother's own tastes-, the kind of ones she truly liked, had approached the photographer that with the sobriety lines of a suit seemed to be even more mesmerizing for Regina than the week before. They had talked for a little bit over flutes of Champaign while the allowed press fluttered between the guests, asking questions and looking for everything that could be a story. That night Emma had told Regina that she loved people to take pictures of but, truly, nature was all much more mesmerizing to her, much more beautiful. They hadn't saw each other for two weeks after that until, due to a meet up she had had with Mal she had crossed with Emma down the hall that directed to the office of the older blonde. Emma hadn't look happy, her eyes stormy and hard in only the way jewels can be, but when her eyes had met Regina had seen how the blonde had tried to mellow the thunders that echoed on those pupils, even for a little bit.

That had been the day she had asked to grab a coffee, together and in one of the most secluded coffee shops she knew, one of the ones that they wouldn't be bothered, nor by the press or by the fans. Emma had accepted.

The rest, as one of the directors Regina had worked with, could have been narrated in a set of several dates that could have gone terribly wrong but didn't. Until they had looked at each other in the bedroom of the very same house they both were standing in front now and had known that whatever they were they couldn't be labeled as fuck-buddies.

They both had run after that, for at least a week where Regina's new year's calendar was being set up and Emma's own work had swallowed her whole. They had eluded each other, tried to hide the fact and search for clues of the why and where, the how and what. It had finally been Mal of all people who had approached Regina with a sigh on her red lips and a look that, as always, could be very things, before placing one warm hand slightly closer to her thigh that necessary before saying that either she needed to have sex or sort whatever mess she had with that "pretty blonde photographer" before the story hit the tabloids.

Of course, the very same day Regina had asked for Emma to come over the tabloids had indeed showed up a blurry image of Emma parking in front of Regina's loft. Their chat had needed to talk the backseat as Regina called to Mal and asked what had happened. After that… everything had been a blur of screams and words and Emma's warm hands taking her phone away with only one question on her lips; "Do you want this?"

And Regina had looked at those green eyes and muttered a yes that had put them both into Emma's car and into the road that ended in that very same house with the world muted for a day and everything else as far away as possible.

The sound of the shutter broke Regina's concentration and, as she looked at her hands, she realized that she had taken a picture of the blonde without realizing, blonde that was now looking at her through her long eyelashes and a smile on her lips. It was going to be tough. Regina knew that. She was permanently on the public eye, her mother was probably going to ask for her head on a plate when she heard that the rumors were true and Emma's run impulse was probably going to be a tough enemy to fight against but, as she looked on the warm lights of the sun, those that made the blonde's tresses glow, she realized that even as difficult as it was going to be she wanted to jump.

And so she took another photo, noticing the way Emma's cheeks reddened and her eyes glowed, jaded and beautiful.

"I love you" Was far too quick, far too soon but she found herself rehearsing the words on her tongue, for the moment, the time, where those were going to be right. She could wait, she would, for Emma, for herself.

And so the day kept on.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Let's shake one headcanon of mine a bit! Regina is the one that always drinks black coffee right? Right. But what if she doesn't?

Coffee Shop AU: Burnt Mocha

The first time Regina had seen her Emma had been sitting in one of the small round-shaped tables of the coffee shop with a half-empty mug of coffee in front of her, a battered book that she still hadn't opened and grains of spilled sugar she absentmindedly reorganized with the tips of her index finger while looking through the shop's window. Her free hand was resting on her chin, a thoughtful expression on her green eyes and her red jacket dropped haphazardly at the empty chair she had next to her.

No that she had been spying on her, of course.

It had been a warm Monday morning, sunrays already filtering through white thick clouds and the sounds of cars honking and rolling down the street outside the cozy little place Regina had needed to take a stop in before she had left Henry at the school. The boy had been talking about a project he had been interested on taking back at History class but he, intelligent as ever, had realized the second his mother's eyes had drifted away towards the blonde woman and so he had coughed pointedly until Regina, realizing she had been staring, had looked at him and had moved along the line, mentally readying her order.

The blonde had caught her attention, that was what she could admit to herself as she asked the young tall brunette of the way she liked her mocha. And well, sitting as she was, with sunrays falling through the shop's mirror while she looked through it, it was almost impossible not to look at her. She, however, didn't have any time to lose and so she had searched for Henry's hand the second her order was ready, set on going to the boy's school, left him there and run to her job. To her horror the boy's hand wasn't where it was supposed to be and as she looked around her she realized with growing worry that the boy had approached the blonde with a lopsided smile that would have made Regina melt at any other time and a glint of curiosity on his pupils as the blonde, instead of looking bothered by the fact a ten-year-old boy was talking to her, answered dutifully to whatever the kid was asking her.

By the time Regina had arrived to the table the word "stakeout" was the last one she heard and, while speaking in clipping tones about how sorry she was about the intrusion she reminded Henry that they both were going to be late if they didn't move. The blonde woman had had the nerve -the nerve- to wink at her while stating that she didn't need to worry, that nothing had happened and Henry and her were just talking.

That had been the first moment Emma Swan had got her flustered enough that her doubts transformed into something she decided to channel into wrath.

As she turned, poised as ever, she had asked Henry to follow her and she had refused to turn towards the coffee shop until both kid and herself had already been sat at her car, the smirk on the blonde's lips big enough for it to be seen even from the vehicle.

That had been the first time Regina had vowed to not care about the blonde anymore, gorgeous as she could be.

That very same day, however, after receiving a call confirming that Henry was safe and sound back at their home with the nanny and a couple of difficult meetings with several CEOS she really didn't want to take she had stopped by the same coffee shop than that morning hoping to drink some of the same mocha goodness that had helped her with the first part of the day. She had fleetingly thought about the blonde, about the infuriating way she had talked, her voice deeper than what she had imagined on those short seconds she had found herself staring at her. However, by the time she had opened the coffee shop's door, she had almost paid no mind to the table the blonde had been seated at all those hours ago.

Almost.

The blonde was still sitting at the table, three more cups sitting in front of her and book already halfway done. Her long tresses obscured her eyes and so the green color Regina had seen that morning hadn't been visible but the red leather jacket was unmistakable enough for Regina to stop for a second before she walked towards the counter in where a blonde girl-the brunette's shift seeming to have already been finished- took her order while smiling through the obvious tiredness that rimmed her eyes.

When Regina had turned, hands around the Styrofoam mug, she had looked to the blonde that, far from the cocky smile she had sported that morning, she now seemed just as tired as Regina herself felt and, for a reason the brunette hadn't know how to name it, she had approached the blonde's table, placing firmly her mocha in front of the blonde before clearing her throat.

"Is this seat taken?" She had asked when the blonde had looked up, a quick glow of realization crossing her pupils.

"No." Emma had answered, glancing quickly at her watch. "No until the shop closes that is."

That has been the first time Regina had shared a drink with Emma. And the time she had learnt her name, of course.

Through that first meet the blonde had said with the ghost of that cocky smile from hours before that what she had told Henry that morning was true; she was working on a case trying to find a man that apparently worked on the restaurant across the street.

"He was supposed to come today." She had said while shrugging, her fingers drawing figures of sugar on the table's surface. "It seems that I will need to wait for a little more though."

If Regina needed to be honest she hadn't exactly believed on the blonde's affirmations, not entirely, but she still felt that pull towards her that had kept her talking with her until she had looked at her own watch and realized she needed to get going. Taking one final sip of her mocha she had stood up while smiling briefly to the blonde, Emma nodding, apparently realizing at the same time as Regina that whatever they had had had already finished.

That night had been the first Regina had dreamt about Emma Swan, stupid as it could sound.

The following day the blonde had been there when Regina had driven in front of the coffee shop but Regina, as she usually liked to do as her friend Tinker liked to point out, hadn't found strong enough or bold enough to take a step inside. Until after a long midday in where she had found herself curious enough -or perhaps lonely enough- to use her lunch hour to go and see if the blonde was still there.

She had been, taking notes and book firmly closed with her piercing eyes settled on the restaurant in front of the coffee shop. Regina knew that the story of the blonde as plausible as it could be it also may have been impossible and what she had in front of her was a story of a woman without a job and an unhealthy obsession. However, she found herself sitting in front of the blonde with her own coffee and a nod that was quickly answered by a swift nod.

She had told Emma about her suspicion but the blonde, instead of answering, had merely laughed.

As days passed Regina soon learnt that the blonde had indeed been telling her the truth. Four days after that second date the police had arrived to the restaurant and Emma had left her place at the coffee's table only to help them detain the suspect; a man on his thirties with black hair and a smarmy look Regina had scrunched her nose at. After the detention and cutting close to Regina's last few minutes of freedom, Emma had entered in the coffee shop again and, fumbling, had told Regina that she wasn't going to be able to make it next day. "I need to work on another case." She had told her while her fingers, those fingers that were always drawing lines with sugar grains, with every small scrap of paper she could reach, fiddled with the hem of her jumper, red leather jacket open.

Regina had nodded and had answered that she understood but, truly, even if she did, she had wanted to ask for the blonde's number as Emma had nodded once, balancing quickly on the tips of her feet as if picking up impulse for something Regina truly didn't know what it was, before turning towards the counter and paying for her coffee consumption of the day. That had been the last time she had seen Emma for a long time: looking at her through narrowed eyes and long eyelashes before turning towards a quickly cooling city.

Until a month after that when, dragging with her a half-asleep Henry whose school life had become hectic enough for him to ask for being left at his bed, had entered that very same coffee shop and the same tall brunette waitress that always picked up her usual had slipped a small carton on her hand when she had handed her the coins.

"She wanted to stay but she couldn't, she asked me to give you this" The brunette, Ruby if Regina remembered correctly, whispered quickly before turning towards a new customer.

That had been the first time Regina had seen Emma's phone and, hours later, once she had talked Tink's ear off long enough, once she had managed to make that call, the first day she had heard Emma's own nervous shuttering when she had realized who she was actually talking to.

"Hi." She had said, obviously nervous, obviously adorable.

And Regina had known what she wanted to say.

"Do you want to go on a date with me?"


	3. Chapter 3

Medical AU: Parts of a picture

The office was illuminated with the natural light of Maine's mid-afternoon sun and as Henry entered inside the place he smiled at the perfectly organized room; no book out of place, no degree -and there were many- placed slightly above the others at the walls. Walking towards the empty desk, in where a set of black glasses rested, he placed his left hand on the polished surface of the table, noticing with fondness the solitary framed picture that stood next to the glasses. Picking it up he glanced at the three set of eyes that returned his gaze before placing it back on its proper place just in time the door of the study opened at his back, a brunette woman walking in with the same warm gaze one of the figures of the pictures sported.

"Did I make you wait?" She asked while coming to Henry. The boy needed to look slightly down in order to be able to be at the same eye level and for a second he thought on the times he had needed to look up. A similar thought could be seen on the brunette who, after quickly caressing his forearm, sighed once and rotated her neck for a few seconds.

"I just arrived." Provided the boy as he looked how his mother went to the subtle changes from being one of the best doctors in the country and one of the youngest Medical Directors to just… his mother.

He had seen it enough times to know where to look but even after that he always surprised himself looking at the way his mom, always perfectly poised, always perfectly correct, changed in front of him, a very similar thing that also his other mother went through.

"I wanted to be here when you arrived." Answered the woman while picking up her purse and checking the hour. "I was called in a last minute urgency. They know I don't really go down to the ORs anymore but…"

"We still have time." Said Henry, knowing full well that if he let her the woman was probably going to worry until she was sure she has made her point across. "Don't worry."

It has been something they had been working on.

Regina smiled at him before kissing his right cheek, something Henry found himself smiling at.

"Is Ma going to make it?" He asked and even if he tried he could hear the way his voice wavered ever so slightly. He knew full well than having his two mothers attend to his graduation was probably going to be impossible but the blonde had promised him she was going to try either way.

Regina sighed as she turned towards the door, opening it as she ushered Henry outside. The white hall of the hospital welcomed them both and Henry blinked, suddenly reminded by the harsh lights of the place where he was. His mother had managed to make the office comfortable and warm in just less than a year and he always had the impression of being at his mother's study back at home than instead of the one's at the hospital.

"I don't really know." Regina finally answered him while grabbing the keys of her car. "I tried to ask Ruby how things were going but you know your mother… and Ruby couldn't tell me if her shift was being easy or not."

Henry nodded pensively as he followed Regina. It seemed than they were going to be just them, then.

-.-

As she drove through Boston Regina kept throwing glances at her cellphone; she had put the device on silence but the notification light was still active and in every other stop she tried to see if Emma had answered to one of her missed calls or messages. The blonde had promised that morning to change her shift with either Ruby or Belle that afternoon in order to be in time but ever since then the only news she had gotten from the blonde had been a picture at mid-morning eating a doughnut and smiling at her with one of her thumbs up. A cute picture, she could give her that, but nothing that actually answered her questions.

Henry's graduation… the thought made her steal a glance to her son instead at the phone just as she guided the car to their left, the young man she could see next to her wasn't the little boy she had once been so preoccupied for and for a second she needed to take a moment, tears threatening to burn her eyes.

Back when Emma had been a mere intern like her trying to create a place for herself at Boston's Hospital, back when neither of them had been nothing serious, Regina had been in the process of a very long and painful separation, one that had, eventually, drifted into a divorce and one that had made her almost loss Henry's custody. Almost.

If it hadn't been for Emma help, a woman that had only been her friend at the time, sometimes fuck buddy and a big headache Regina preferred not to think about it, she was sure she would probably have lost him. Now, however, five years after that, after everything, after a long process of trails and error and almost losing him over again once he had reached his teen years, she was going to be at the boy's graduation.

It seemed like a dream and for that she finally parked the car and turned towards the boy, his eyes already set on his phone and whatever messages that he was reading there.

"Nervous?" She managed to ask before Henry looked at her with a smile that Regina was sure he had picked off Emma.

"A little bit." He admitted before looking at Regina's phone on the dash. No light. "I love you, mom."

"I love you too." She whispered as Henry kissed her cheek and left the car just before waving at her.

"C'mon Emma…" Regina whispered through gritted teeth as she, too, exited the car and followed the parents that entered inside the building Henry had once upon a time dubbed as "Hell"

-.-

Emma growled as she approached her son's school. She could still smell the soap of the ORs room on her hands and she knew that her hair was going to be something Regina was going to comment on it but the only thing she was focused on now was arriving on time.

Two more minutes…

Regina was going to possibly kill her, she thought while turning at her right, the car's tires protesting against the asphalt. Her phone had run out of juice at some point after lunch and she had been unable to look at the hour or know all the missed calls she probably had from Regina. And she had been deaf to her beeper once she had entered in the OR. If it hadn't been for Ruby... luckily she had managed to end up the operation before knowing how late she actually was; her nerves had been eating on her the second she had run out of the door of the room.

Pulling the car and parking it, she walked out of it while picking up her leather jacket she had managed not to forget once she had changed back at the hospital. She hadn't even stopped to see if Regina was still at the office; that was how late she was.

As she entered inside the building she skidded on the polished floor. Perhaps, she thought as she crossed hall after hall, she really needed to consider taking a job like the one Regina had, one that as hectic as it was would be easier on her although, who was she trying to lie; she loved working like she did. Most of the times.

Entering inside the gym and trying not to blush when several parents turned towards her with a look of profound disgust on their faces she scanned the seats until one set of brown eyes looked back at her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered while sitting next to Regina, shy smile playing on her lips, perhaps if she looked contrite enough Regina wouldn't kill her.

"Everything all right?" The brunette asked as she touched Emma's tresses just like the blonde had predicted.

"Yes, sorry, lost track of time."

"You're here." Regina replied while smiling at her briefly before turning towards the students. The ceremony was about to start.

And, indeed, she was.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N So.. this is not exactly an Au… not in the most purist sense at least but that's what my mind came up with, it's also the shortest one of the bunch but I hope you all like it!**

Soulmate AU: Pulsing warmth

Regina still could remember, all those years ago, the day the ceremony had arrived. Her mother had dressed her in one of the most uncomfortable dresses she had ever seen and had looked sternly at her before ushering her outside. The touch of the ring just before she had hold it between her hands had been cold and she had shivered slightly as her father had repeated the words he had once upon a time memorized.

The gem of the ring had flickered for a moment before changing from white to a beautiful shade of blue that had remained swirling as Regina had looked at it, nervous and almost forgetting the words she was supposed to say back. Her mother had later on punished her for that.

At the moment, however, it hadn't mattered since, for the very first time, Regina had realized she was looking to the very first clue of who her soulmate was going to be, the person that, no matter what, was always to be there. She had read about how the rings worked, about magic formulae that -in that moment- didn't hold any meaning to her. Even though she would later on resent them, try to bend them and cry until nothing else mattered.

In that second all she had known was that the ring worked with the powerforce of one's soulmate's life picking up the color of their eyes. Ambiguous enough for the people to decide either following who the ring told them was their soulmate or decide against it. And even though fairies could always help you picking against your soulmate was considered stupid enough for the people to try to found them no matter what. The color had been beautiful and she had spent the next weeks closing her hands around her ring -which she had fasted around her neck, never on her finger because that would mean she had already found the one and no, that hadn't happened yet- and concentrate on the small but steady pulses she could feel emanating from it. Wishing, dreaming, of the moment she would meet them, whoever they were.

She had still been a child after all, she had still believed she would have the possibility to be happy.

Daniel's eyes had been blue. A beautiful hue of blue that had looked back at her as she had sawn the ring the boy had around her neck, a warm set of brown that had almost glowed the second they had realized, they had felt, the pulse inside their rings becoming stronger, becoming warmer.

Regina had never thought the possibility of seeing so young the ring turning back to white just a couple of months after she had met Daniel. However, the moment Daniel's body had touched the floor the ring had flickered and died alongside with a part of her, the same part that had cried day after day, the part that had turned into a vicious black, the part that had torn down page after page of magic books in order to find something, anything to bring him back.

Until she had realized that she, even with all the power she had discovered she actually could yield, could never turn back time, turn him back.

She had casted the curse hoping to get not only her revenge but also oblivion and so during 28 years she had worn the ring around her neck, never able to look at it for too long but never able to take it off. Until she had thought it had titillated one day, the curiosity making her look at it for a second before frowning, convinced that she was merely seeing things, convinced that, in a land without magic, soulmate rings didn't work anymore, not like they had done back on the Enchanted Forest and that had been precisely one of the easiest things to accept.

She had obviously not met Emma Swan yet; the blonde certainly didn't follow any rule, not even rules thought to be set in stone between realms.

It had taken more than a year for the ring to actually react to Emma once she had actually met her. Spurts of magic made the ring pulse and color itself in something Regina sometimes caught being green and other times a strange mix of blue. Every time she had felt the pulse she had tried to squash it, not knowing, not wanting to know, what that meant.

She hadn't exactly known at first why the ring had reacted after all those years and it hadn't been until Neverland when she had realized that Emma's eyes were the same color than the weak but steady glimpses of color her ring now had. She had done her best not to think about it, not react about it.

Until they had return back from the Enchanted Forest, until Emma had given up her own goodness in order for her to be able to be happy with a man she truly didn't love but whose magic scent was close enough to the blonde's she could pretend, could imagine, that her ring had been wrong all along, that she was still that girl in that uncomfortable dress believing in happy endings and easy soulmates. Until Emma had looked at her, giving her that damned blade and had asked for something Regina wasn't sure she could even have done, could even forgive herself in case she needed to do it.

Until Emma's heart had started to blacken and with it the pulses coming from the ring had turned from steady to erratic, from calm to anxious, from strong to weak enough that sometimes Regina woke up in the middle of the night with a hand around the ring and not knowing what to do but swallow down the knot of worry that threatened to eat her whole.

And eventually the whole ordeal with the Dark One had finished and Robin had been gone and Regina truly didn't know what to make of it until her other self, her evil self, the one who was still bleeding over Daniel, had come from inside of her with ideas of actually making Regina take that step she had been denying herself ever since she had looked at the ring between her hands surrounded by leaves and forest and had known who the color of the ring was from.

Be truthful.

So there she was, trapped in a world the blonde woman in front of her had once upon a time wished to murder and with the man she had once considered to make her soulmate and the ring around her neck pulsing so quickly she almost couldn't breathe.

"Regina!" She had heard, but she didn't move, unable to, too scared to.

Because the woman that was calling for her was warm and fiery and the man looking at her wasn't, because there were many things she still needed to admit and many others she had come to accept.

She remembered Daniel and his eyes, the way she had looked at her ring in wonder back when she had been a child and the way she had brought the ring to her lips back in Neverland, not really knowing what she was doing, who she was expecting at the other end of the line. Emma didn't have a ring, hadn't had had a ceremony, hadn't been told about the power those things yield or why it was so unforgivable why the damned pirate hold onto the ones of his enemies. She didn't know and she did not need to know. But, for a second, Regina saw that, as Emma didn't need to know who her soulmate was in order to decide she did not need to negate the fact of whose eyes were the ones that looked at her every time she glanced at her ring. Or the reason why the blonde had truly given her goodness not even knowing what was at the other side of the vortex, or why it had been so difficult to say goodbye back when Pan's curse had been looming over them.

"Take my hand." She said and for a second everything stilled until Emma seemed to realize that it was her the one who Regina was asking for. Her fingers were warm against hers and Regina squeezed them before she turned towards Robin, eyes narrowed and jaw clenched.

And then… a single sigh escaping Emma's lips and a wave of magic surging from the two of them, a swirling vortex that poured out of Regina as she absorbed Emma's.

And Regina knew she was home.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Spoiler alert! This could be classified as PRE-relationship**

Enchanted Forest AU: Rewritten

 _"And then King Charming and Queen Snow found the Author who they persuaded to help their cause. The Author gave them t power enough to contain the Evil Queen stopping then the dark curse the cruel sorceress had been plotting to cast against the White Kingdom…"_

"And then?" Had Emma asked again and again every time the story reached that point. Ruby had always laughed at her eagerness before playfully either tickling her or smiling while her eyes glowed a translucent yellow Emma's mother always said she did not ever question in front of other people or Ruby herself.

 _"Then everyone lived happily ever after."_

Of course such happy endings did not exist but that had been something Emma hadn't known at that moment; with a laugh on her lips and her favorite caretaker telling her story after story of how the kingdoms had been before she was born.

Before the curse had been dissolved.

Now, with a torch on her right hand and the other holding a sword Emma herself didn't really seem like that very same girl, and the world, the forest, that grew outside the cave she was in, did not as well looked much like the happy place she had once been told about. Or had lived in.

Swallowing thickly while she raised her torch a little bit more, she kept walking with the echo of her steps as the only thing that followed her inside the darkest parts of what had been the hidden entrance to the Dark Castle, the one in which the Queen had been caught 28 years ago and preserved it.

Killing hadn't been her parents' strongest feature after all and even if the prophecy that spoke about desperate times and measures when faced with the decision of murder they had both chosen to leave the Queen alive but without access to either her powers or her freedom. That had also been a tale she had been told back when she had been slightly older than the times in which Ruby told her the story of the White wars, the ones in which, as history books narrated, the future of the Kingdom had been decided.

"By doing what we did." Often said Snow to a curious Emma. "We prevented the prophecy from happening so you did not need to become the savior."

Back when she had been younger those words had sounded vaguely menacing, vaguely oppressing but still reassuring enough. When the Dark One had stricken the kingdom three years ago, however, and the word around the court had been if that was the moment a new prophecy needed to be made the blonde princess had realized that they, in fact, hold something she hadn't been able to see before. The burden of a destiny she really hadn't considered it as real, as worrying, until she had been taken out in front of her parents and asked why her, the one who fate had pointed as the savior of the land, couldn't defeat the Dark One, the evil menace that was killing everything and everyone in the- in that moment- borders of the kingdom. Her parents had refused, had told them no until the body count had become too large and even the closest villages to the castle had started to fill with the weeping screams of the widows and orphans.

At the further side of the cave Emma saw what seemed to be the beginning of stairs and followed them, the sound of her booted feet changing, growing in echo as she ascended. The Castle had been abandoned ever since her mother had imprisoned the Queen and the particles of dust seemed to float in the murky darkness as she tried to see anything resembling to an entrance to the actual palace.

It had happened one night, back when Emma had already started to train and fight alongside her father after countless of discussions with both him and her mother. _"I need to be the one they need me to be!"_ One fairy, one whose name was so ancient Emma had seen Blue tremble from head to toe when it had appeared, had approached the council it had been created due to the war and had told them about how magic always required a price.

"By stopping the curse." The fairy had said, eyes black, cold smirk in place, "You prevented your daughter to become the one the kingdom needed her to be. You stopped Destiny. And Destiny does not tolerate such things."

Her fingers had glowed for a moment and sparks had come out of them, magic suddenly seeming to hover in front of Emma. So strongly that the green eyes of the princess had been able to follow it as it approached her, as it became closer. Ruby had growled, Blue had remained mute.

"You cannot become the one you need to be without the Queen." Had said the fairy. "You won't be the Savior without her power, without yours."

As she finally came across a second opening in what seemed to be a half-crumbled tower, Emma crossed it, finding herself in a long corridor in which specks of lighting were visible through the small windows that flanked its right side. At the other side the blonde distinguished a half-way closed door, one in which the emblem of the Queen, an apple tree, could still be visible.

Her mother hadn't wanted her to go, had said that it was dangerous, that there were other things they could do. Thing was that there weren't. Emma had sensed it the moment the fairy's magic had touched her body, a part of her seeming to re-awaken under it. Within a month the blonde had left the kingdom with just a horse and Ruby's scribbled instructions of how to find the castle. The werewolf had howled at her back as Emma had lost herself in the night and, for a second, Emma had thought back in all those times Snow had told her to never ask about the glowing eyes that she knew now were following her every move.

Walking through the corridor the blonde's armor -enchanted by the fairies to make it more manageable- clanked ever so slightly as she moved; the door oozed magic, the power seeming to caress the air around Emma even if it never actually touched her.

"It was midday but no one would have said that…" She had heard the story a hundred times. About how her parents had broken into the castle only to find it empty except for the last room, the room in which the Queen had turned towards them, as terrible and cruel as ever, before facing its own fate: Being defeated by Snow White. However, as closer as she become to the ajar door the stronger she suspected that her mother's stories hadn't been as exact as she claimed. Here and there carcasses of bodies could be seen; some soldiers in which the armor of the Queen's guard could still be distinguished between the debris and dust made her pause and for a second she stood there, green eyes glinting under the torch and a sword that had once been her father's tightly clasped on the other.

She wasn't a hero, she had never intended to be one, but as she licked her lips and kept walking she thought on the countless deaths, on how many the war had already taken and so she kept walking until she reached the half-way closed door through which a purple gloom could now be seen.

Once she pushed it open she needed to swallow a gasp as the torch illuminated what seemed to be an alive set of chains made by letters and words written in a language she did not understood. The chain, that glowed and moved like a living being, rose from a circle drawn on the floor of the room, the purple glow coming out of the runes written there. The chain ended in the wrists of a life-size statue-like woman whose eyes seemed alive enough for Emma to pause and blink.

Of all the things she had expected she had never imagined such a prison, such a nightmare.

"The author..." Ruby had said but she had never stopped to think what that meant. Now the ink and words that kept changing and forming in front of her eyes seemed to hold a much darker meaning than the one she had once upon a time give them and for them she stood as tall as she was, not really knowing what else to do except look at the woman who had once tried to kill her.

The statue, as Emma decided to describe it, was covered by a film of that very ink albeit this didn't glow nor moved. Everything, however, from the spiky hair to the embroidered dress, was perfectly preserved and as she left the torch in one of the metal hangers that still hold its position at one of the closest walls she narrowed her eyes, unable to stop herself from looking.

In her head the Queen had been ugly even though Snow had always described as mere years older than Emma's actual age. "She married your grandfather very young." She had said with the shadow of a frown obscuring her forehead. Due to the tales, however, Emma's imagination had given the Queen more years than the ones she had and now that she was looking at her, at the woman that had been casted away by the Author's power, she now needed to readjust that image.

Because, if Emma was being honest, the woman covered in ink and trapped in old words of power that stood in front of her was nothing like her parents had let her imagine the Queen had been and she would be lying if she said she didn't hear the calling that purple magic, the one that was no other but the sorceress' being milked away with those tendrils that kept her in place as she would learn later on, kept screaming inside of her. So she raised her right hand and took off her gauntlet, her armor clanging as she positioned in front of the woman.

"You are the product of true love." Had whispered the fairy as her form had started to dissolve. "You are the only one powerful enough to destroy her chains. Rewrite what was destroyed."

Her hand touched the surface of the ink that kept oozing out of her wrists, forever bleeding black, and a blast of power run through her, so powerful, so strong, she almost fell as every inch of her hand seemed to be burnt in fire a thousand times over.

And then, gone, only a gasping mouth and two chocolate brown eyes looking at hers in the same wonder Emma suddenly felt. With the same hazy memories of a story that had never been told.

"Regina?"

 **A/N I'm evil I know Xd The ones that may have read more of my previous works may already know that I love leaving one shots in open endings so you all can hang me xd Bye! -scurries down towards her rock- Let me know what you thought! ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N So, this needs a quick and slightly longer author's note than my normal intake. At first, when I was planning the week, I thought on writing every one shot somehow linked and therefore link this one to one previously written making Emma and Regina revive one of the stories but with a slightly different ending. At the end, however, I decided against it because I felt that the story wouldn't be interesting enough and so my mind, which is already up in the clouds too much, decided to play with one of the two worlds I've enjoyed writing the most. The one that can be seen on "And the cogs are moving and the clocks are ticking" or the one of Memories of Wonder, a story I took down a few months ago due to personal problems. Either way the two worlds are heavily Steampunk, fantasy-based and so I thought… well, why not? So this story is a mention to Wonder's world and the Regina and Emma versions of that world will make an appearance on it with just slight differences from the original story just in case someone read that story back when it was up. It's also the longest one of the bunch so I say sorry in advantage but giving me half a reason to write a fantasy world is like giving water to someone who is desperate to drink. I will shut up now, just wanted to explain this, happy reading! ^^ (And since tomorrow is the last day of the SQweek I also want to tell you all that the writer's choice will be a somehow follow up of Power Game ;))**

Trapped in an AU: Copper lines

Emma glanced at the different set of trinkets and swords, guns and pistols that laid in front of her, asking herself, not for the first time, how she had ended up there. The story, of course, had started with a portal and a set of too many unanswered questions…

* * *

Emma stumbled as the metallic glow around her that had surrounded both Regina and her back at the mansion, when the two of them had finally settled after their first date in what seemed to be years disappeared, leaving her in the middle of a bluish tinted room she at first didn't know what to make out of it. Turning while trying to decipher where she could have landed and who may have brought her there she bumped into Regina's back. The brunette woman was as well looking at her surroundings with a frown already forming on her forehead.

"Regina?" The blonde whispered, making the brunette turn abruptly towards her with one hand raised in front of her, a gesture Emma had seen happen thousands of times before. Only that this time no fire appeared on the former queen's fingers. As soon as the woman realized who had called her though she looked down at her palm where her magic laid, inert. "You…?"

"My magic is still here." Replied quickly the older woman to the unsaid question as she rotated her wrist carefully, sensing the magic around her. "However, I can't access it."

Emma turned towards her hands, trying to convey the emotions that normally made her link to her own magic but even though she felt the sparks dancing between her fingers once she looked at her hands her palms remained silent.

"Mine too." She finally said to Regina who merely hummed, already back to study the room the two of them were in. Her footsteps left metallic echoes as she approached one of the four columns that rose from the floor at the four cardinal points around them creating some sort of circle with the thick wires that covered the seemingly copper surface. The columns were now inert and the light of the room came to the dirty-looking bulbs that seemed to float above the construction but a distinct hum could be felt in the air as Regina approached her hand towards the surface of the column and Emma instantly flinched, a warning already forming on her lips as she saw Regina hovering her hand atop the column.

After a couple of long excruciating seconds, the brunette moved back, brown eyes glowing as the followed one of the thickest wires that seemed to hold the whole construction together. Made by mismatched metal panels the columns didn't look that impressing after all and Emma soon followed the brunette's gaze as she tried to get a look of her surroundings beyond the strange circle.

Now that she could focus on everything better and with her head clear enough she could see that the bluish hue she had repaired at first came from two big windows built way above the two of them from which the light filtered through what seemed to be thick glass hold in place by thick metal girders. In the furthest wall from where the two of them stood a series of levers could be seen and so she pointed them to Regina who was now looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Do you know where are we?" She finally asked.

The former queen, however, shook her head, arms already crossed in front of the blouse she was wearing. "I'm afraid not. It doesn't seem like the Enchanted Forest though. Nor Storybrooke's realm."

"That's because you are not there." Came a voice at Emma's back and the blonde jumped before turning quickly, mentally kicking herself for not having seen the now small open door in which the one who had spoken was now leaning into. And as soon as she focused enough on the owner of the voice she felt her mind start to reel.

It was herself, a perfect copy of the image she saw every morning on her house's bathroom; same blonde tresses, same green eyes that now seemed to glow apologetically, same face. Although this Emma, the one that was standing now in front of them with both of her hands raised, had something she couldn't quite pinpoint.

Her clothes were something of course; dressed in what seemed to be in riding breeches with heavy-looking boots adorned with copper that clanked against the floor as she approached them and that climbed up her leg until just a few inches below her knee the blonde also wore what seemed to be a long reddish coat that was closed at the moment until her midriff in which it opened revealing a holster fastened around her waist although the gun that hang from there was nothing like the ones Emma knew about. An array of small leather pouches were also fastened to the holster and, around the blonde's neck, hanging loosely, rested a pair of googles created in the same coppery-like material that seemed to vibrate the second the other Emma crossed the circle the wires of the columns created around both Regina and the original blonde. Emma also noticed how from the right wrist of the blonde, in which a tattoo still could be seen peeking below thick leather fingerless gloves, a series of cogs and several pieces of material she did not know how to describe traveled up her arm until they reached the shoulder of the leather jacket, seeming to widen enough to accommodate what she did not really know if it was a sword scabbard or something else.

"I told Regina to wait until I arrived here." The blonde mumbled as she stopped in front of Emma, the savior could feel Regina coming closer to her, one hand at her back for the briefest of seconds before it disappeared symbol enough to let her know she wasn't alone. "Obviously she didn't listen."

"Were are we?" Emma asked, not really letting her mind to fully process what the other her was saying, what other name she had uttered. "Who are you?"

The other Emma kneaded her neck before sighing. "And that's why I said to her she needed to wait." She murmured before nodding to herself. "I'm Emma, one of the many ones out there at least."

"One?" It was Regina's turn to ask, eyes narrowed as she looked at the blonde in front of both her own Emma and herself. "As if I didn't have enough with one…"

The words made both blondes roll their eyes before the new one spoke again. "Yes, we brought you here, another reality, from a world in which the two of you have magic."

"But why?" Pressed Regina, taking a step closer to the blonde woman. Her magic was still buzzing just below her fingertips, too elusive for her to grasp but that the other woman did not need to know. "Why us?"

"Because we need you two." Came her own voice from the same door the other blonde had appeared moments before. "And yours is the only reality in which the two of you have the same amount of magic for us to use."

Even though Regina knew what it was probably coming she looked either way, raising one eyebrow at her other self while Emma gasped audibly at her side.

Her other version wore a corset clasped just below her chest with the aid of leather straps that seemed to be embroidered with black lines that faded into the breeches she also wore, this time black and not as weary-looking as Emma's maroon ones. Her hair was shorter and her eyes were also much colder than the ones Regina's had become accustomed to look at every morning back at her own mirror.

"We are not in Kansas anymore…" She heard Emma whispering to herself at her side and she needed to refrain herself for saying anything to her.

"So you need our magic." She said instead, turning towards her own doppelganger as she walked closer to the three of them, the hum of the columns only growing stronger as she did so. She saw that peeking between the white blouse that could be seen below the corset something that seemed to be a gem glowed in the same frequency than the columns and so she narrowed her eyes, wondering if it was somehow related. As far as their copies did not seem menacing that didn't mean they were out of danger.

"Part of it." Her other self provided while pulling one lever before turning back towards them. Regina realized that both Emmas were looking at each other in very similar menacing poses and she did her best to hide a smirk as the other Regina positioned next to the other Emma with her hands across her chest and a brow arched in what seemed to be eerily like seeing oneself in a mirror. "Magic here is not like the one you come from and we need as many energy as possible."

"We've noticed." Replied Regina, clipped, refusing to say anything else. By the gaze her other selves shared, however, the information wasn't new to either of them.

She felt Emma's hand around her wrist and for a second she felt a rush of calmness fill her up before she saw the curious and somehow sad expression of the other Emma as she followed the short interaction. However, she remained silent, nodding at Emma once before focusing back on their copies.

"How do you plan on bringing us back to our world?"

"The same way we brought you here." The other Regina said while pointing around them.

"You created a portal." Emma said next to Regina and the former Queen hid a proud smile.

This time it was her other self who looked pained and for a moment she wondered what she was truly in. She had never apologized for who she cared for, however, enough had been to discover that what she had wanted most, Emma's affection, had been there for far longer than neither of them had dreamt to realize until they had been trapped inside the Wish Realm almost a year ago. Breaking out of that reality had been tough but, at least, it had given them each other. She wasn't going to sacrifice that only because she was in another realm.

"We programmed one." Provided the other Regina. "We cannot create them."

The difference was telling enough for the former Queen to forget momentarily her own musings. "That's the difference between you and us, right?"

The other Emma nodded, the contraption around her arm moving alongside her head. Between the cogs several lights twinkled. "We can canalize magic but not create it, or infuse it, we need someone who can create magic so we…"

"Pass enough power to trap I've been creating." The other Regina finished, shooting a warning glance towards the other blonde who huffed angrily before turning back towards the door, apparently not interested on keep talking. "There are things which would be best for you to not know, however. This is a new realm; we don't know what your presence would represent."

Regina and Emma had looked between them, silently asking the other what they thought about the reality they both were in.

"If we help you." Spoke Emma after a couple of minutes. "We will be able to return safely then?"

It was the other couple to look between the two of them and nod after a few seconds. "We give you our word."

And that's why Emma stood there now, in the middle of a room in a building her other self had referred to be one of the last bastions that stood between the uncopied lands and the ones that had already been lost. Apart from her two doppelgangers the building was empty though so the blonde had the distinct impression that the situation was even more dire that the other Regina's explanation had let them know. When asked about Henry, however, the two women had flinched and the same sadness had been seen on Emma's face before she had promised them than he was safe, back at the capital, a city that seemed to be far away up west, still safe from whatever army they had been asked to battle against.

Which hadn't pinged any alert on Emma's detector so she had thought to trust them, more or less. Either way, Regina was there and as she grabbed what seemed to be a very similar gun than her other self had, she thought back on the look the two of them had shared before the other Regina had ushered her in another door.

Defeat the menace, program a new portal and go back to their own realm, listed Emma as she turned towards the door. Easy.

And if she managed to found Regina and be sure that whatever chat she had had with her other self had turned to be okay and she was all right better. And maybe steal a couple of kisses, just because.

 **A/N I know, I'm an asshole. I needed to restrain myself a lot with this story only to realize half-way through it that I had rewritten the original idea almost entirely… -sighs- I cannot be trusted it seems. Either way consider this a prologue of the actual idea? What do you guys think?**


	7. Chapter 7

A/N So… final day! This was the hardest one to write because I always have hundreds of ideas roaming inside my head but I finally decided a vampire!au one shot. The main reason of it would be that a few weeks ago -one and a half?- I did a small prompt with Emma and Regina in a movie!Van Helsing story and a few asked for a continuation or an expansion of that world. I'm currently swamped with other prompts and ideas so a full fleshed story would be almost impossible but the story remained at the back of my mind. Blood right can be read without having read Power Game (It's posted on my a03 account) before so if you prefer to read it as a standalone it can be done, don't worry! But, in case you have read it before this one Blood right is Regina's intake on what happens back in Power Game and in case you are interested on read it it can also be done since even if it more or less does not discover anything further the two stories show different parts of the world and Regina's vampire version as well as Emma's hunter. And I will get silent now. Let me know what you think and thank you so so much for all the comments, kudos and reblogs and likes back at tumblr!

-Dianne out-

Writer's Choice: VampireAU- Blood right

Regina let her feet touch the ground as her magic dissolved around her; the cold air that run through the half collapsed chapel she had come to rest making her robes tremble for a moment once her body turned out to be corporeal enough as she licked the blood out of her lips, her eyes narrowing in satisfaction as she tasted the liquid. Another tasty meal.

One, she admitted while turning to look back at what had once been the main entrance of the building, had been very short lived. Raising her chin and taking a whiff of the air she growled lowly once she picked up the scent of leather that had been her only signal a few minutes before when the man she had been eating from had been rescued by one tall blonde figure that had tried to stun her with the aid of what had seemed to be a holy water bomb. The especial glint of the water that had been sloshing inside the glass-made flask had been what had made her jump backwards, blood still on her mouth, as she had called for her magic.

It had been almost two months since she had come across the small town she had been camping in and she had known that she soon would need to move east if she did not want to be caught but she had come to not be quick enough. Something, she thought as she felt the scent coming closer, her magic cloaking her again, making her one with the shadows that covered the half-demolished walls of the chapel and debris-obscured floor, that very rarely occurred anymore. Still with her eyes narrowed she bared her teeth as she saw the same figure as before entering through the gate of the chapel. Heavy boots that, strangely, did not leave any single sound before them and a swishing long leather jacket responsible for the scent that now was impossible to miss. Her eyes traveled up, to the face of the stranger, face that looked through the darkness of the ruined place with a set of green eyes that under Regina's enhanced ones glowed in the moonlight like gems.

Tilting her head to one side Regina let her appearance of shadow to expand ever so slightly as the blonde explorer moved towards where she had been standing mere seconds before, her eyes seeming fixed to the floor in where, now the brunette vampire looked at, a single blood droplet glinted accusingly back at her. Not a very big droplet but still enough to make her sigh inwardly. A messy eater, that had been something Maleficent had always told her that would be her undoing.

"When you are hungry you must be even more careful with your meal." She had said time and again and Regina had tried to perfect that trait of her, make herself as clean and precise as the other was. Which had proven to be impossible.

Looking back to the now crouched woman she let the magic clock her again as she walked past her, enough for her nose to get the scent not only of the leather the blonde human wore like the jacket she had but also of her blood, which, pumping through the blonde's body, made the vampire's fangs begin sharpen inside her mouth. The woman's blood smelt like power, like magic, and for a second Regina let her glamour ascend slightly, allowing her to look through the woman's body, trying to see if behind that exterior another creature waited for her.

Nothing, the human was just that, a human. One that still heard her when the magic cloaked her back as she moved towards what had once been the pulpit -now almost nothing but a set of barely standing pieces of wood and rock. -

"I know you are here." The human said in an almost childlike tone that made Regina want to roll her eyes. The cloaking spell, however, was already spreading thin under the scrutiny of the human and she remained as silent and immobile as possible as the blonde hunter walked closer towards her, her feet leaving faint prints behind her as she did so. The front part of the leather coat was open just enough for her to get a glimpse of the holster of a gun and for that the Vampire fangs peeked between her now parted lips, a hiss escaping when she did so.

"I see you." The human said again, this time her voice smug as she smirked. Her jade-hue eyes were in fact looking towards the shadows that now covered her form but Regina did not move. It was impossible to pretend she was not in fact inside the chapel but the human was just that, a human, one that as enticing and powerful as she could be and smelt could actually do nothing but whimper at her feet and if she was fool enough to actually try to fight on her territory.

"I very much doubt that, human." She replied, filling her voice with the same power that glamoured her away from her. It was a kind of power that very few creatures didn't understand and she was rewarded with a small shiver, one that, however, was cut short as she quivered in satisfaction at her still scrutinized corner, the movement apparent enough for those blonde eyes to pick it up. "Your kind is far too blind to see anything."

The answer didn't wait and for a moment the scent of power that she now could feel rolling out of the blonde in waves inked in gold and dirty white heightened. "I'm not exactly what you would call normal."

Regina nodded at that, knowing that the statement was true enough. Her power still coated the air around the two of them; any other human would already be crying for her to either kill them or devour them. Very few humans actually would have been able to resist such call. Except a hunter of course.

"That is something I can tell." She replied, letting her glamour illuminate her eyes which glowed under the silver moonlight as she finally looked fully at the woman's face, at the way her lips were set in a fine line as she seemed to look through the spell. She let her body become weightless as she moved towards the blonde's back, letting just a tad of her power caress her face.

"Show yourself." Came the answer and she chuckled darkly from her place at the blonde's back. She wasn't obliged to do anything for the human. Back in the old times the mortals had understood that. Now, however, ancient knowledge had gotten lost and with it such information. She licked her lips as she felt the pulse of the woman's blood becoming stronger against her tongue, enough for her eyes to narrow again, now transformed into anything but shadow for anyone that wasn't herself. Magic and power, she mused as she rose her right hand, caressing her own neck with her index finger as she looked at the blonde's figure, assessing it. A curious mix that almost never came from a human. Human that now moved, parting the coat sides, letting the gun's holster visible once again for her, and with it the smell of gunpowder that quickly rose from it.

"As insistent as you are, dear." She said, purring, taking a step closer towards the holster, interested enough in the way the blonde kept fighting against her power. "I'm not really interested."

"Countess? Is that you?" Came the reply and for a moment Regina felt the lace around her body tighten slightly, the power of a name obvious now as the waves of gold and white quivered and darkened.

The human knew about the ancient rule, that alone was telling and interesting enough. The blood that boiled beneath her skin, however, was much more alluring now and for that Regina did not move. The name was not the right one but its power around her was still powerful enough for her feet to stumble. Names bound people to the earth, to the land that had once been for creatures like her. A name, her name, was her chain and with that humans, mortals, had learnt to call them like simple dogs. Magic had its rules, some old vampires, the ones that had been Regina's own mentors, sometimes said, magic always takes from what it gives. The curse of their names had been their pay.

And the human knew about it.

Chuckling just as she felt the spell around the namecalling fall at her sides as it was impossible to get ahold of her she hummed, her voice sounding between the moon beams as she spoke. Moving even closer she let her hand ghost over the blonde's covered back.

"You know the power of names, how refreshing." Her lips parted, the taste of the blood she had drank earlier forgotten as she felt the sharp ends of her fangs pressing her flesh. "Problem is, dear, that I'm not a countess."

And she, truly, wasn't. She had known the countess the blonde probably thought she was. Had been a friend in fact. Until Regina had gotten bored. Or Mal herself had felt like it had been enough. Regina had never know. Either way the woman was long gone and with it the power that name hold. She had been -was- something better than that poor nobility title. She looked at her own body when it began to titillate as she thought on the better hold to get to bit the human's neck hard enough to get a taste of that blood that seemed to chant and pulse with power.

"What are you?" Came the question and as she moved those long blonde tresses at one side, recklessly as she later on would discover, she finally answered with every part of her magic filling the title with power enough to get any other creature to their knees.

"A Queen."

Everything happened too fast though and the second she leaned towards that neck she received a shot of holy water that did not harm her enough to be worrying but yes for it to slow her down. The hunter turned towards her, a whirl of leather and green that soon enough stared at her as the last pieces of her glamour left her body.

"You were saying?" She asked, smugness no longer obvious but still visible on the way she kept looking at her. Regina noticed with a smirk that some blush darkened the pale complexion of the human as she looked at her see-through robe. One that she used only with the purpose of the hunt. She, however, was quick to turn her smirk into a snarl, knowing that if the blonde thought her to be hurt and still unable to move she would probably lower her defenses.

"I'm more interested on knowing who you are." She finally said, putting a tad of her power on her words, the only little magic she actually was able to actually access. The blonde's eyes gleamed as a sole response before she was given a name, one that made the air around her tremble in a very similar manner the one of the Countess had done.

"Emma Swan."

They stared at each other as the human, Emma, moved closer, almost crouching as Regina remained on the floor, unwilling to move, not yet.

Emma.

Her fangs elongated as she felt the throbbing of the blonde's heart pumping blood, one so heavily infused in magic she almost felt dizzy.

"You still haven't told me your name."

It was just a second, a second of silence before the brunette moved, the echo of her name resounding as she bit down on the woman's wrist. A decision being made so quickly she almost did not felt the surge of power that came out of her as she gave her own name freely, willingly, as the blonde's blood touched her tongue.

"Regina Mills."

Emma cried in ecstasy.


End file.
